Blogs from Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, North America - page 36

It looks as though the photos are at the bottom of the page, so I will have to get busy and add more. I took the easy way today, and a bus to the zocalo. Now I am too tired to write much. Either way home at the end of the day is difficult. I said to a woman sitting in front of her house "Este camino me mata!" ("This hike kills me!") She laughed and said it won't be so bad next week!! She was at least 60 and has no doubt been doing it all her life. As you get closer to the center of town the graffiti becomes more dense, and as you approach the zocalo the barricades range from a few bags of sand, maybe a broken down car and some wire, ... read more

Sorry that I am at this point unable to get the photos on here. I will have to read further. Anyway, did I mention that the house is located on a hill? A steep hill? I walked down to the store, because the little one up the street has so few items. I swear the angle of incline is over 45%. The cement surface is grooved, but slipping, esp. where sand has been dumped, is possible. The trip back had my legs throbbing. I pretended to stop to check out the view, but really I was sweating and out of breath. Today I ache. Guess I won't need to find a gym! There is another, less direct but less steep route that I'll attempt this afternoon. Exciting to begin discovering the neighborhood. Construction is underway in ... read more

An early start to make the most of our precious hours here. Oaxaca was highly recommended to us by James - who spent some time working here in 2003 - however we think that we were not there at the best time. Sunday was probably not the best day of the week, but what really marred our experience was the 70,000 protesting teachers, who had been putting their point across since May. This really lessened its colonial charm, with graffiti, wrecked vehicles, barricades, stench and tarps everywhere as temporary homes. This made the 24 hours there hard to while away as everywhere we wanted to visit was either shut or shuttered; even the markets were desolate. On a more positive note we did find the office of the Oaxaca Times, where James worked, which we ... read more

From San Cristobal we took an overnight bus to Oaxaca City. It took 12 hours and I managed to keep my food down for this journey! We were both looking forward to Oaxaca as we had heard great things. Upon arrival though things didn’t start too well, the taxi dropped us on the edge of the Zocalo as he couldn’t go any further due to the entire area being blockaded with corrugated iron fences. We entered the barricade through a gap in the fence and the place looked like a bombsite. It had also been overrun by mass graffiti artists. Our first impression was that the taxi driver had just dropped us in the middle of nowhere and as it was dark (6am) we didn’t know what to think. We managed to find some street signs ... read more

It´s so long to Mexico City and off into central Mexico, Oxaca State.... Mexico City to Pueblo Took a collectivo (VAN for 10 people) from Mexico City to Oxaca, via Pueblo. Mexico City to Oxaca (pronounced wohaka) is about 7 hours or 500 KM. This is where I met two Brits and a New Zealander (photos attached). On the way, we did a short stop (2 hours) in Pueblo (pop 1.3 million, elevation 2162m) which is a very Spanish city. I mean they didn’t want independence from Spain when the rest of the country broke away.... even today they are a little estranged (snobby) apparently. This town was also a major base for the Catholic Church, with some 70++ churches used to convert the natives. Overall it was a nice clean town though, with some wonderful ... read more